American-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics

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The American-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow was a part of a package of actions to protest against the December 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Though the Games have aimed to be an arena free of death, the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan spurred United States President Jimmy Carter to issue an ultimatum, the terms of which being that the United States would boycott the Moscow Olympics if Soviet troops had not withdrawn from the country by 12:01 A.M. Eastern Standard Time on February 20, 1980; the official announcement confirming the boycott was made on March 21.

The United States was joined in the boycott by some other populous countries - including the People's Republic of China^[1], Japan, West Germany, and Canada. Notably, Great Britain, France, and Greece did not boycott the games, but Great Britain and France sent a much smaller delegation of athletes than usual. Nevertheless, the delegation of the Great Britain was the largest among Western European countries, with 170 athletes applying to compete.^[2] Spain, Italy, Sweden and Finland were other principal nations representing western Europe,^[2] though Italian athletes belonging to military corps did not attend the Games either, due to the government's support of the boycott. The boycott severely affected many events. At the Opening and Closing Ceremonies fifteen Western nations (Australia, Andorra, Belgium, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Puerto Rico, San Marino, Spain, and Switzerland) marched under the Olympic Flag, instead of their national flags. Moreover, although the government of New Zealand officially supported the boycott, four athletes from that country competed independently and marched under their NOC's flag [1]. Altogether, 16 countries were not represented by their national flags, and the Olympic Anthem replaced their national anthems at medal ceremonies. As a result, there were a few ceremonies where three Olympic Flags were raised.

Even though only 80 nations participated, more world records were set in Moscow than in 1976 in Montreal.

On May 8, 1984 the Soviet Union issued a statement, that the country would boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles due to "chauvinistic sentiments and an anti-Soviet hysteria being whipped up in the United States".^[3] 13 Soviet allies joined the boycott.

[edit] Boycotting governments

Incomplete map of olympic boycotts, showing 1980 boycotting countries in blue and green

Anti-boycott sticker, published by the Communist Youth Federation of Spain

64 or 65 (from different sources) in all, list not complete

[edit] Supporting Boycott governments that left athletes free to decide

• Great Britain government
• Australian government
• Italian government

[edit] Reference

1. ^ Xinhua account of 1980 Moscow Olympics, June 7, 2004: 因苏军入侵阿富汗，公然违背和平、友谊的奥运宗旨，导致国际奥委会承认的147个国家和地区中，有2/5的参赛国公开抵制和拒绝参加。……美国、日本、西德、加拿大、澳大利亚、中国等国坚决执行抵制政策，没有参加本届奥运会。(Due to the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet military, a flagrant violation of the Olympic principles of peace and friendship, 2/5 of the countries and territories recognized by the IOC publicly boycotted and refused to participate.... The US, Japan, West Germany, Canada, Australia, China etc. were firm in their boycott policy and did not participate in these Olympic Games.)
2. ^ ^{a b} 1980 Summer Olympics Official Report from the Organizing Committee, vol. 2, p. 190
3. ^ Burns, John F. Protests are Issue: Russians Charge ‘Gross Flouting’ of the Ideals of the Competition. New York Times, 9 May 1984